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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

Ideas for feeding in a nursery with no milk kitchen

21 replies

Ellellie · 10/12/2012 16:43

Ideas please!

DS will be 10 months when he goes to nursery in the New Year when I go back to work. He's breastfed and has solid food. I'm planning on expressing but have been having a problem getting a supply up and will more than likely need to send him with formula for the first couple of weeks (he's in for 2 days).

My problem is that the nursery does not have a milk kitchen so won't be able to make fresh bottles. The propose that I take in boiled water in the bottle and the powder and they'll heat up the water using a bottle warmer and add the formula. Obviously this is against guidelines that say bottles should be made fresh with water over 70 degrees to sterilise the milk. I need an alternative for those couple of weeks (maybe longer if I can't get a supply for those days). If I bought cartons, which ones would I buy? What stage milk does he need? Is cartons my only option?

Thanks in advance! :-)

OP posts:

StickEmWithThePointyEnd · 10/12/2012 16:45

Sorry, but what is a milk kitchen? Surely they just need a kettle?

notMarlene · 10/12/2012 16:48

IME (with my DC and friends DCs) 10 month olds are often happy to manage without milk during the nursery day and just have extra to eat. Both my DC were happy with it from, maybe, 8 months or so.

He'll almost certainly want to make up the 'deficit' in the evening or a night though, would that be OK for you? It's probably less disruptive to your supply and would cut out the hassle of trying to express / the cost of formula.

BertieBotts · 10/12/2012 16:50

The safest way to do it if you can't make the bottles up fresh is to make up with hot water and quickly cool.

Although I aree with Marlene that at 10 months it's very feasible that he'll be fine in the day without any milk. Your supply will adjust too even if you feed in the day when you're not working :)

dishwashervodkaanddietirnbru · 10/12/2012 16:52

If he is going to breastfeed the rest of the time then you might be as well just giving him a drink of cows milk at nursery. It would save the hassle of using formula for the short time before he is 1.

Original poster

Ellellie · 10/12/2012 16:55

Stickem NHS nursery. I think they used to have side rooms with equipment for sterilising and storing lots of milk (my office is an old one so we have a sink and everything!) obviously they don't have this side room now and decided that they can't just have a kettle to do bottles. I'm boggled too but have decided not to bother to ask!

notMarlene I don't have a problem letting him make up the deficit if he doesn't want milk during the day. He's already down to just a couple of feeds in the daytime now, but I do make sure he's snacked up. I'm just worried that they have set meal/snack times and if they don't give him food food to hold him off until I get to him he'll be upset (can you tell pfb!? )

OP posts:

BertieBotts · 10/12/2012 16:56

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Original poster

Ellellie · 10/12/2012 16:57

Maybe I just need to try him out closer to the time with no milk during the day. I know when I'm not with him he doesn't take much from a bottle an waits, only he's super grumpy!

OP posts:

notMarlene · 10/12/2012 16:58

Cows milk is fine before one, as long as it's not the main drink. It wouldn't be, probably not even over the day, let alone over the week - chances are he'll feed extra when he sees you again anyway.

But, are you in the same building or did I misunderstand? Can you not just drop in to feed? I had to do that with bottle-refuser DS and he wasn't upset by it at all.

notMarlene · 10/12/2012 16:59

X post

Oh, NO chance of him going without milk during the day if you're about - you'd need to leave him with someone else.

Original poster

Ellellie · 10/12/2012 17:02

I'm not in the same building just nearby. I've told them that if he is really upset and won't feed (I know he will feed from a bottle) I can be flexible and nip down. But if it's like you say and by 10 months he'll be not looking for milk during the day then I'm sure we'll be fine

Sometimes it's difficult to understand that he'll be doing different things in such a short time!

OP posts:

Original poster

Ellellie · 10/12/2012 17:03

I might get my friend to take him for a couple of days before I go back to test the waters or maybe just stop stressing about it

OP posts:

lostconfusedwhatnext · 10/12/2012 17:10

Bertie Botts - I completely agree. ;)

Original poster

Ellellie · 10/12/2012 17:12

Cat on keyboard Bertie

OP posts:

lostconfusedwhatnext · 10/12/2012 17:13

Ellellie, I kicked both mine off the daytime breast at 9 / 10 months and they were fine. One of them, a couple of weeks before I went back to work, to see how it would be - she was fine, ate food, drank water, napped as normal, but fed a long time in the morning and evening. The second, it was about 3 months before I went back to work, I just couldn't be bothered any more ;). Both bf morning and evening till 15 / 16 months after this. They both had access to me in the day and had a chance to moan about it but didn't bother. (dd1 kicked up a right fuss when I stopped the evening one though, but that's another thing)

TheElfOnThePanopticon · 10/12/2012 17:13

I would question them further as if they are taking babies under 12 months old, they can't just not have the facilities for formula feeding a baby. I would find that a huge area of concern.

lostconfusedwhatnext · 10/12/2012 17:13

TheElf is right though, not following formula guidelines is bad - it makes you wonder what else they can't be bothered to do properly.

BertieBotts · 10/12/2012 17:19

Ha! No, four year old on keyboard sorry!

I think (in the nicest way!) you are over-worrying about the food thing. They react so differently to things in a nursery environment and there will be so much going on and so many exciting things to do that he won't be thinking about food really, and when they do have mealtimes for some reason sitting with other children is like some kind of magic for getting little ones to eat.

And if he was distressed because he was hungry they wouldn't just leave him hungry - they'd try different ways of settling him and one of them will be snacks, I'm sure!

It's not so much that they don't look for milk in the day by 10 months, just that at 10 months he is likely to understand that mummy present = I can have milk and mummy absent = I can't have milk and just take that for granted and be happy with other foods and drinks (even if he rejects other milk in a case of "You expect me to drink that??")

Also your supply will be robust enough at 10 months to be able to handle a work/home shift pattern, even if he feeds 10 times a day on your days off, you'll find they adjust and you don't leak or get engorged. I have no idea how it works but it does :)

I'm not massively surprised that the nursery won't make feeds up fresh, as I understand it, most of them don't.

Original poster

Ellellie · 10/12/2012 17:19

I know, I'm going to bring it up when I go for my next visit next week. Since they are an NHS staff crèche they should really know better! Took me a bit off guard that they were telling me to do it like that in the first place!

I'll see how he goes without boob in the few weeks before. We are going home for Christmas, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get a grandparent to bribe him away with snacks!

Thanks for all the advice. It's gives me hope his not going to be a boob fiend for the rest o his life!

OP posts:

Original poster

Ellellie · 10/12/2012 17:23

Thanks Bertie I know I'm over reacting, you are right. Must be a pfb thing! It's going to be weird packing him off to nursery on a morning. I'm hoping he doesn't do what my friend's DS did and just wave her off when she got to the door and carries on playing. I don't think my ego could take it!

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notcitrus · 10/12/2012 17:29

When ds started nursery at 11 months I left them with a 8oz carton of formula per day (ordinary stage 1, no point in paying the extra for 'growing up milk' and other stuff made up solely to get round advertising bans), so I didn't have to worry about it being made up or anything. He carried on bfing before and after just fine.

Sometimes he drank it all and then had a bit of cow milk, sometimes he didn't, but he was amazingly happy at nursery. Once he was a year he had cow milk like all the other kids.

brettgirl2 · 11/12/2012 21:00

I just send a carton of premixed. I don't see what the issue is tbh, nurseries are generally funny about mixing formula.

Or as others have said go for cows milk.

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